266 



A NEW DEPARTMENT OF THE PASTEUR INSTITUTE. 



In our article on the rise and present status of official economic ento- 

 mology, in the last number of Insect Life, we referred under the head 

 of France to the establishment of the Laboratoire de Parasitologic de 

 la Bourse de Commerce at Paris, and of an entomological department 

 at the Institut Agronomique. We learn from IS^ature, of September 

 13, 1894, that a new department of the Pasteur Institute has been more 

 recently established, which has for its especial object the experimental 

 study of means of defense against injurious insects. M. Metchnikoflf 

 is superintendent, with M. J. Danysz as his assistant. The objects are 

 as follows: (1) The collection and cultivation of all of the pathogenic 

 microbes of insects and animals destructive to crops, (2) the study of 

 the conditions of development of these microbes in animals and on vari- 

 ous media, (3) the direction of field experiments, and (4) the superin- 

 tendence and control of practical api^lications of results of laboratory 

 work. The best means of applying these results will be discussed by 

 a committee, some of the membei s of which are MM. L. Brocchi, Costan- 

 tin, Grandeau, Millardet, Sauvageot, Schribeaux, A. Giard, J. Kiinckel 

 d'Herculais, A. Laboulbene, P. Marchal, and E. L. Eagonot. A bulletin 

 will be published, as well as monographs of destructive insects and 

 pathogenic bacteria, statistics concerning damage, and critical notes on 

 all publications referring to these matters. 



NITROGENOUS FOOD AND THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 



Mr. J. T. Cunningham, in Nature for September 27, 1894 (p. 523), 

 referring to Weismann's statement that the bee has the specific prop- 

 erty of resijonding to imperfect nutrition in the larval state by an 

 imperfect development of the ovaries, and that, as proof of this, blow- 

 flies from maggots partially starved, but fed exclusively upon meat 

 like those which were not starved, laid eggs in normal abundance, calls 

 attention to the fact that the larva of the worker bee is supplied with 

 a diet low in nitrogen, while that of the queen bee is supplied with one 

 highly nitrogenous. Evidence is required that the larva of the blow- 

 fly can fully develop its ovaries when deprived of nitrogenous food. 

 He i)oints out that Weismaun himself, in one of his notes, shows that 

 when blow-flies were fed upon carrots and sugar they laid no eggs for 

 more than a month, but as soon as meat was supplied them sucked it 

 greedily and laid great numbers of eggs the week afterwards. He 

 further shows that in the case of Termites, Grassi has found that the 

 fertile individuals are fed during development on the secretion of the 

 salivary glands of other individuals, while sterile forms are suj^plied 

 only with macerated wood dust. 



SOME SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MATTERS. 



The journal of the Agricultural Bureau of South Australia, published 

 as an appendix to the Garden and Field for August, 1894, contains 

 several items of interest to entomologists. It seems that the pear or 



